AI scheduling assistant, symbolized by a calendar and a notebook

Simplify Your Days With an AI Scheduling Assistant

Use AI scheduling assistants to help organize your calendar so you can focus on getting more done.

By the team at SlackJanuary 29th, 2025

“Can you schedule a team meeting for next week?”

This simple request from your boss might seem straightforward — until you start checking everyone’s calendars. There’s no shortage of conflicts during the proposed time, and you’re unsure when the next team meeting can actually happen. What’s the solution?

Enter the AI scheduling assistant. This technology uses artificial intelligence to manage calendars and automate scheduling, giving you more time to focus on the work that really matters.

Read on to learn how AI scheduling assistants work, what key features to look for, and tips for overcoming common challenges.

Understanding AI scheduling assistants

Think of an AI scheduling assistant as a virtual personal assistant for routine, time-intensive tasks like coordinating schedules and sending meeting invitations. These assistants help you manage your time more efficiently by using your calendar data, preferences, and availability to automatically suggest the best times for meetings, appointments, or tasks.

For example, if you usually schedule virtual team meetings on a specific day and time, your AI assistant will start to recognize this pattern. Over time, it will learn to automatically create an invitation using your preferred virtual meeting tool and invite the necessary team members. It will then prompt you for approval, giving you a chance to review the details and make any changes before the invitation is sent out.

The technology behind AI scheduling assistants

AI scheduling assistants use machine learning (ML) to speed up scheduling across teams, time zones, and organizations. They also employ natural language processing (NLP) to scan, summarize, and analyze information.

Scheduling assistants use ML and NLP to streamline meeting arrangements, including rescheduling, and minimize human error with minimal user input. They can integrate with widely used platforms like Slack, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook to facilitate seamless collaboration.

The advantages of using an AI scheduling assistant

Slack’s Workforce Index showed that 94% of executives recognize that incorporating AI into their companies is an urgent priority. AI scheduling assistants can maximize productivity and streamline daily administrative tasks, helping workers manage time more efficiently. By removing the burden of scheduling and rescheduling, employees can focus on more strategic tasks.

Other key benefits of AI scheduling assistants include:

  • Calendar optimization: It’s faster and easier to schedule a meeting with help from AI. Scheduling assistants can compare multiple stakeholders’s calendars simultaneously to suggest potential meeting times, minimize conflicts, and adapt to schedule changes in real time.
  • Better time management: Many people struggle with effective time management at work. AI scheduling assistants help employees arrange meetings that fit their schedules, maximizing time and reducing stress. AI does this by identifying patterns, such as preferences for heads-down work in the mornings or taking calls in the afternoon.
  • Improved meeting outcomes: AI scheduling assistants organize meetings, take notes, send recaps, and may even boost attendance. With advanced features like meeting reminders, time zone calculations, and real-time rescheduling, the chances of double bookings, conflicts, and absences decrease.

 

Key features of top AI scheduling assistants

When selecting the right AI scheduling tool for yourself or your organization, consider your range of needs. If your team already uses certain tools and software, choose a scheduling tool that is compatible.

Here are some key features to look for:

  • Integration capabilities: Your AI scheduling tool should work with the apps you use daily. For example, if your team relies on Google Calendar, choose a tool that integrates well to ensure no one misses a meeting or assignment.
  • User-Friendliness: An AI scheduling assistant should simplify your life, not complicate it. Opt for a tool with intuitive navigation so anyone can use it right away.
  • Advanced automation: Choose an AI scheduling assistant with built-in features that send automatic reminders and important notifications before meetings. This keeps your team informed without any manual effort.
  • Time zone management: It’s common for teams to collaborate across different time zones due to remote and hybrid work. Eliminate the time zone math with an AI scheduling assistant that automatically makes the adjustments.
  • AI note-taking: AI note-taking technology uses large language models (LLMs) and NLP to collect, filter, and analyze meeting information. It then uses that information to generate summaries and transcripts. AI note-taking tools can also generate suggestions for the next steps and send meeting recaps to participants after the meeting ends.
  • External coordination: If you frequently meet with partners and stakeholders outside your organization, choose an AI scheduling tool that simplifies external scheduling. For example, if you select an AI scheduling tool that integrates with Slack, you can invite external stakeholders to meetings through Slack Connect.

 

Selecting the right AI scheduling assistant

Manual scheduling can come with a range of logistical challenges, such as coordinating virtual meetings with multiple attendees across time zones. Context-switching between apps can also affect productivity, but the right tools can help streamline the process.

When selecting an AI scheduling assistant, choose a tool that fits your needs. For example, if you already use Slack for daily operations, consider tools that integrate so you can keep working in one place.

Here are some AI scheduling and meeting assistant tools that integrate with Slack to consider:

Clockwise

Clockwise is an AI-powered calendar management tool that uses keyboard commands for scheduling, rescheduling, and canceling meetings. For example, to schedule a meeting in a direct message in Slack, you can type “Book 30 minutes with @Jane tomorrow” using the schedule command.

Clockwise can suggest convenient meeting times for participants by analyzing calendar data and filtering it through individual preferences, habits, and prior commitments. The tool also offers advanced features, such as setting your status to automatically update when you’re in a meeting or focused on work by turning on Do Not Disturb Mode and silencing notifications.

Scheduler AI

Scheduler AI is an AI email assistant tool that can make informed decisions based on data, offering unlimited personalization capabilities. The more you personalize your settings, the better it understands your habits, routines, and preferences. The tool adapts according to your behavior over time.

With Scheduler AI, users can get scheduling assistance through written prompts. For example, if you add Scheduler AI to Slack, you can add it to your chat, and ask the tool to “schedule a Zoom meeting with @John at noon EST tomorrow.” Scheduler AI scans the relevant participants’ calendars to find the best possible meeting time, considers time zones and external partners’ schedules, and sends invites with video conferencing links when it finds the best time.

Manda for Google Calendar

Manda for Google Calendar is an AI meeting assistant tool that uses research and habit data to improve meeting productivity and engagement. It also anonymously collects feedback from attendees to improve meeting outcomes, like attendance and time spent in meetings.

Many of this tool’s key features improve organizational efficiency. Manda sends out reminders for missing meeting links, unset locations, and unanswered invitations. It also helps alleviate common pain points, such as breaking up back-to-back meetings and regularly reviewing recurring meetings to identify opportunities for improvement.

Gather AI

Gather AI is a smart scheduling app that eliminates the need for manual coordination with automated and customizable workflows. It makes scheduling recurring stand-ups simple, accounting for varied time zones and schedules, so that they happen when your whole team is online and available.

Gather AI is can instantly launch stand-ups from within an organization’s work operating system. For example, Slack users can initiate stand-ups directly in group channels.

Best practices for using an AI scheduling assistant

AI scheduling assistants do more than put meetings on your calendar. With NLP and ML technologies, they can go beyond pattern recognition by collecting and analyzing data to inform decision-making over time.

Here are some best practices for using AI scheduling assistants:

  • Customize your settings: Your AI scheduling tool should prompt you to customize your settings. This helps it learn about your meeting preferences, industry, and relationships with colleagues. AI uses that data when making scheduling decisions. Without customizing your settings, your scheduling tool will lack the key context to best assist you.
  • Synchronize your calendar: Practicing good calendar hygiene involves using the same calendar app across all devices and keeping it updated. Synchronizing your calendar across devices makes it easier for your AI scheduling assistant to analyze and update your schedule as needed.
  • Block out your time: Use your calendar to block out times when you’re unavailable for meetings. This includes heads-down focus time, appointments, holidays, and vacations. Your AI scheduling assistant will see these blocks and arrange your calendar accordingly.

 

Overcoming common challenges of AI scheduling

Introducing new technology in the workplace can be challenging, especially when a business has recently undergone other organizational changes, such as restructuring or implementing new workflows.

This can be particularly true of new innovations, like AI. Slack’s Workforce Index found that only one in four desk workers reported using AI on the job, which may be due to a lack of knowledge, comfort, or access.

From security and accuracy to technical and logistic obstacles, here are some common challenges associated with AI scheduling assistants and potential solutions:

AI accuracy

In a study of more than 10,000 desk workers worldwide, Workforce Lab from Slack found that 36% of executives are concerned about AI’s accuracy and reliability. Just as humans make mistakes, AI isn’t perfect either. To make the most of the technology, teams should double-check any AI-generated work before it’s published or used professionally. This practice allows teams to monitor accuracy, control quality, and adjust as needed.

For example, an AI scheduling tool may struggle to differentiate between meetings and focus blocks on a calendar without proper training. To improve AI decision-making, sync your calendar with the scheduling tool and train it to recognize these types of nuances by clarifying them in your settings.

Privacy concerns

As AI becomes commonplace at work, leaders and employees have become increasingly familiar with the technology — but that doesn’t mean they understand how to use it responsibly. A Salesforce study found that 83% of executives claim to know how to keep data secure when using generative AI, compared to only 29% of individual contributors.

Business leaders must choose AI tools that protect their company’s data over those that use private information as a commodity. Slack AI meets enterprise-grade compliance standards, including encryption (at rest and in transit), network security and server hardening, administrative access control, system monitoring, logging and alerting, and more. It also never uses customer data to train LLMs.

Technical issues

Technical issues can happen for various reasons, from tool malfunctions to knowledge barriers. In both cases, company leadership can help navigate these obstacles.

The best way to handle a power outage or system crash is to be prepared. Leaders should develop contingency plans that outline how employees can proceed in such events. These plans should be widely distributed and accessible for employee review so everyone understands how to recover.

Technical issues can also arise from a lack of user understanding. In a survey from Slack’s Workforce Lab, 43% of respondents reported a lack of guidance from leaders on how to use AI at work. Leaders can address this by offering training sessions focused on AI, automation, and scheduling tools. Slack can help support knowledge sharing through tools like canvases, channels, file sharing, and more.

Coordinating complex events

Scheduling large or complex virtual meetings with multiple attendees can be a huge challenge, especially when done manually. AI scheduling assistants simplify the effort required to schedule such events. Some tools can analyze multiple calendars at once, rearranging meetings as necessary. For example, AI can differentiate between calendar events, such as other meetings and time blocks. It then uses this information to schedule meetings at optimal times for all parties.

Other ways businesses are reclaiming time with AI and automation

A recent Slack survey found that 47% of small businesses agreed that they should adopt AI technologies to stay competitive in the market. AI scheduling assistants combine AI and automation to accelerate productivity, facilitate communication, reduce time spent on manual tasks, and increase workplace efficiency.

Here’s how companies are using Slack AI:

Increasing efficiency and boosting customer satisfaction

Online home retailer Wayfair uses Slack’s Workflow Builder to automate more than 2,000 repetitive tasks across departments. Beyond improving efficiency, leaning into automation has also helped the company create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

“Slack has enhanced our approach to employee engagement through dynamic features like Workflow Builder, which lets us embrace new possibilities and collaborate in exciting ways,” said Samantha Simmons, Senior Manager of Training, Communications, and Engagement Strategy. “With automated tasks and seamless integrations, Slack helps us focus more on customer and supplier experiences and less on administration,” said Asad Rahman, Wayfair’s Director of Global IT Support and Digital Workplace.

Surfacing knowledge quickly

Beyond Better Foods, a healthy frozen desserts brand, sought a solution to help scale its distributed operations and become more competitive. It chose Slack as its central communication hub, helping teams quickly surface information and make more informed decisions at critical moments.

The brand particularly relied on Slack during the Covid-19 pandemic to support more efficient remote work. The company uses integrations alongside Slack AI to manage time efficiently, search for data, and gain insights into logistics.

“I’ve only been using Slack AI for about a month, but it’s already helped me quickly find answers countless times and is saving me at least 30 minutes a day, said Andy Kung, VP of Operations. “The enhanced search capabilities of Slack AI have [also] been really helpful to fast-track answers, especially when it comes to logistics.”

The future of AI and automation for businesses

AI and automation make many aspects of work more efficient, helping to take time-consuming administrative tasks off workers’ plates.

Generative AI and automation have already impacted the way many professionals approach work. Slack’s Workforce Lab found that the use of AI tools increased by 24% in the first quarter of 2024. McKinsey research, meanwhile, predicted that 30% of hours worked today could be automated by 2030.

With AI and automation on the rise, the path forward envisions more opportunities for humans and AI to work together — a term called collaborative intelligence. Humans are more adept at empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity, and teamwork, while machines can more quickly, easily, and accurately analyze large amounts of data.

Working together creates more opportunities for better business outcomes. Accenture research showed that companies that employ collaborative intelligence see the most significant performance improvements. This trend is likely to continue and evolve.

Use AI scheduling assistants to save time and stay focused

AI scheduling assistants help teams simplify meeting coordination, scheduling, rescheduling, and sending reminders. Whether it’s handling internal meeting coordination or organizing large virtual meetings with dispersed members, these tools can help teams reclaim valuable time each week. Over time, AI assistants can analyze and learn from your data and personal preferences, making scheduling even more convenient and streamlined. Consider what using AI for scheduling — and other repetitive tasks — could mean for your productivity, and find a tool that fits your needs.

Learn more about how Slack AI helps businesses increase efficiency.

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